At the Kosovo Specialist Chambers, during the ongoing trial against former leaders of the Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA), the third defense witness has begun his testimony.

He is former British diplomat John Stewart Duncan, who during the Kosovo war served as political adviser to NATO’s then-Supreme Allied Commander, Wesley Clark, the general who led NATO’s 1999 air campaign against Serbian military targets.

Duncan stated that, in his view, the KLA had a heterogeneous composition, “with people of different experiences and motives.”

“We called it ‘the army of those who had nothing.’ Their aspirations were not the same. Their motives were not the same. When ethnic cleansing began to escalate, the composition of the main members was very diverse: there were former soldiers of the Yugoslav Army, lawyers, doctors, journalists, and others, some with families who had been mistreated. The reason they took up arms varied from person to person.”

— John Stewart Duncan, former adviser to Wesley Clark

By this, Duncan aimed to highlight that the KLA lacked a regular hierarchy and, politically, was composed of different forces and individuals with varying levels of support. According to him, “this was the difficulty we faced there,” as the KLA’s political leadership — including Hashim Thaçi — often struggled to convince fighters to follow important decisions, such as disarmament.

He also emphasized that Thaçi’s role did not reflect the political reality and that he did not enjoy full legitimacy in society.

Explaining his own role at the time, Duncan said he worked for NATO:

“I reviewed all diplomatic cables, monitoring services, and then attended meetings where I briefed General Clark. My main tasks were to provide advice to military commanders on political and diplomatic aspects, but also to guide them on how to respond and the impact of their actions on respective operations.”

— John Stewart Duncan, former adviser to Wesley Clark

The former British diplomat had also served in Albania after the fall of communism. He further spoke about the characteristics of Albanians that the international community did not fully understand, as well as the differences between Albania and Kosovo:

“Kosovo Albanians had lived under an apartheid system during Milošević’s time. They had been excluded from governance, public services, and gradually all of this led to the ethnic cleansing we all witnessed. They were different from Albanians in Albania. In my opinion, they had not lost their affection for each other. They were connected to one another.”

— John Stewart Duncan, former adviser to Wesley Clark

Duncan is the third witness called by the defense of former KLA political representative Hashim Thaçi.